The Navigating Dental Insurance Podcast

Brandyn is a CADCAM CEREC Digital Impression Specialist at Patterson Dental Supply. We’ve known him for years and have been to many dental meetings and conferences with Brandyn in recent years. He’s a true expert when it comes to CADCAM and CEREC. During this episode Brandyn talks about the advances in technology within the dental industry. Jordon and Ben explain how insurance should not and cannot prevent you from obtaining fees for using technology that allows you to provide treatment that is above and beyond standard insurance coverage. They discuss the HITECH act and how this law is designed to employer patients with the legal authority to receive treatment that they want and need and having that treatment protected from insurance scrutiny and abuse. Ben explains the do’s and don’ts in using insurance waivers and how to best implement an insurance waiver if you are using advanced technology such as CADCAM or CEREC. The objective behind using an insurance waiver is to allow the patient to receive these advanced forms of treatment that may not fully be covered by their dental insurance plan, while allowing doctors to collect an appropriate fee that is commensurate with the quality of dentistry being delivered. To contact our hosts, please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Penny Reed is a nationally renowned dental practice management coach, speaker and author. She works with dentists who want to grow their practices, become more profitable and have a better quality of life. As a result, her clients are more focused, have more income, more confidence and have happier teams to support them. Penny’s unique combination of management experience, success as a dental practice consultant, and business administration education make her one of the most effective dental practice coaches and speakers in North America. With more than 23 years of management experience, from publicly traded companies to dental practices, Penny has the unique ability to quickly pinpoint challenges and turn around underperforming practices. In 1992 Penny was recruited by her own dentist to manage his growing dental practice. Penny worked as an office manager in this dental practice and became adept at managing personnel issues, negotiating financial agreements, implementing a scheduling protocol, and developing other must-have skills for successfully running a dental practice. Her excitement about the possibilities for improving struggling or stagnant practices using her proven methods prompted Penny to enter the dental consulting world; in 1994 she joined a well-known nationwide consulting group, eventually becoming a franchise owner. As Penny continued to work with practices across the nation who faced similar challenges in unique environments, she soon saw that the solution to improving these practices called for a more personal and customized approach. So, in 2001 Penny launched a new dental coaching business and continues to work with practices across the country, including multi- and single-doctor practices, from general dentists to specialists, offering customized solutions to their biggest problems and helping the doctors to set, achieve, and maintain their own unique goals. During this episode, Penny discusses the changes in the dental industry and how much more difficult things have become. She talks about the rise of dental insurance taking over percpeption and how the culture of the practice can eliminate or reduce insurance driven conversations. Check out Penny's book "Growing Your Dental Business" by visiting this link on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Growing-Your-Dental-Business-Effectively/dp/1941870228/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528903584&sr=8-1&keywords=growing+your+dental+business#customerReviews Visit Penny's website for more information about her or to contact her to ask questions: http://growingyourdentalbusiness.com/ To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

Brian Hanks is a dental accountant and works exclusively with buyers of dental practices. He's the author of the cleverly titled book, "How to Buy a Dental Practice - Volume 1" and owns and operates his own consulting business exclusively for dentists, and exclusively for dentists at BrianHanks.com. In the past, he's worked for two dental CPA firms, is a Certified Financial Planner. He has an undergraduate degree in business from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Michigan. During this episode Brian talks about market conditions for buyers. He also discusses some of the common mistakes and pitfalls when it comes to PPO contracting/credentialing when making a purchase. He also gives insight on what type of practice you should look for (Medicare, PPO, fee for service). Brian also introduces his second book titled "How to Buy a Dental Practice - Volume 2." To purchase a copy of his book on Amazon click on this link: https://www.amazon.com/How-Dental-Practice-Step-step/dp/1544112114 Visit Brian's website to learn more about buyer resources: www.BrianHanks.com. To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Naren Arulrajah is a well-known medical marketing entrepreneur, an accomplished author, speaker and consultant, and the founder and CEO of Ekwa Marketing. Naren hosts a popular Podcast show for practitioners and professionals in the dental industry. Naren has established the Ekwa Growth Club and the Ekwa Institute to help doctors in the US and worldwide achieve their goals through digital innovation. In recognition of his industry innovation and leadership, Naren was conferred the “2014 Leadership Initiative Award” by AceTech Ontario, a pre-eminent nonprofit promoting global technology entrepreneurs. During this episode, Naren talks about his process of imagineering unique marketing concepts that others are not even contemplating. Furthermore, he discusses unique ways to leverage online reviews to your advantage as well as building a unique type of social proof that places you on a pedestal in your own community. We are so impressed with what Naren has to share that we've even listened to this recording twice before even posting it. Enjoy the show! To contact Naren please email naren@ekwa.com. Or visit one of his websites listed below: https://www.ekwa.com/ https://www.growmyreviews.com/ https://www.growingdentist.com/ To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Jared Parente educates us on all the details of a dental warranty program and how you can enhance your in-house membership program with a dental warranty. In this interview, Jordon and Jared discuss; The concept of a dental warranty, how a warranty can lead to greater case acceptance, how to use your warranty as a practice-builder, the risks of providing a dental warranty and how to manage these risks and how to market your dental warranty to your existing patients as well as to potential patients in your community. You will enjoy Jared’s knowledge and experience with dental warranties and you may want to consider a dental warranty as a value-added service for your practice. Jared’s website: Home Jared’s email address: answers@dw-corp.com To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

KPI’s, you can’t live without them! Running a business is really tough to do without analyzing your key performance indicators. During this episode, Kevin explains several important dental KPI’s that everyone should be focusing on daily. Divergent Dental provides a very simple tool to allow you to access reports that are not readily available through practice management software. Visit http://divergentdental.com/ for more info. To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

Dr. Phelps is an entrepreneur and general dentist who owns multiple practices in the Charlotte, NC region. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998 with a BS in Biology and in 2003 he graduated Magna Cum Laude from the prestigious Nova Southeastern University, College of Dental Medicine in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. From 2003 to 2010 his passion for business and his flair for marketing and promotion showed through when he increased the revenue of his practices ten times. For 2013, when most of the dentists were struggling to produce what they had from the year before, Dr. Phelps’ practices grew by $2,000,000. One of his secrets was a passion for the Science of Persuasion and how to ethically use Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Principles of Influence to set the stage for his patients to say YES to the requests he and his dental team ask of them. Having received the honor of being named a Certified Trainer in Dr. Cialdini’s Method of Influence, Dr. Phelps offers an exciting two-day course to educate you on the principles, show you how he uses them in his practices and how you can incorporate them into your business. During this episode Dr. Phelps discusses several effective marketing techniques he uses in his practice. While his practices are fee for service, we firmly believe that good marketing techniques are vital to the growth and success of any practice (fee for service or PPO). You can purchase his book “How to grow your dental membership plan” on Amazon. You can also contact Dr. Phelps at drchrisdmd@gmail.com. You can also check out his websites: www.membershipsavingplan.com or www.calltrackerroi.com, or www.drphelpshelps.com. To contact our hosts please email them at help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Dr Craig Spodak is one popular guy. Not only is his dental practice "THE" dental office for many celebrities, Dr Spodak himself is a renowned speaker and educator on many dental topics. During this episode Dr Spodak talks about how he set up his hybrid dental practice where he, and a few other doctors are fee for service while other docotrs in the practice participate with a wide set of PPO plans. He talks about how this hybrid model has been beneficial in many ways in building a successful bullet proof dental practice. Dr Spodak is also a fellow podcaster. You can check out his podcast by visiting http://www.bulletproofdentalpractice.com/. For questions about this episode or to contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Dr. Anissa Holmes, a Dentist, Business Acceleration Coach, Social Media Strategist, and Best Selling Author is a leader in the dental industry. Dr. Holmes has coached and advised coaches, million dollar practice owners, and startup practices. Based on her massive success, Dr. Holmes has been featured in top dental publications, such as Dental Economics, Dentistry IQ, and Dental Products Report, and has been featured as one of the top 25 Women in Dentistry. She has also been a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World and her Delivering WOW Dental Podcast has listeners in over 100 countries. Dr. Holmes is the Founder of Delivering WOW U, an Online Coaching Community for Dentists, and runs 10X Business Acceleration Bootcamps for Dentists to 10X their team performance, profits and brand. During this episode Dr. Anissa talks marketing. She discusses ways to implement successful and budget friendly marketing concepts she’s used to be successful in growing her practice. Dr Anissa talks about how wowing per patients has resulted in over 5000 likes on her facebook page. She believes that the most powerful aspect of marketing is delivering a WOW experience to the patient. From on-time appointments to hot towels and snacks, Dr Holmes believes that patient experience is paramount in building your practice. She discusses the hidden power of facebook marketing. For pennies on the dollar she’s been able to build a solid following of patients by targeting certain types of individuals. She believes the investment in marketing when done right is an investment, not an expense. Jordan and Dr Anissa discuss how effective marketing can be used as a tool to reduce dependence on dental insurance. She believes that while marketing is a great way to increase patient flow as an out of network provider, having a culture and a solid team is just as important as marketing. Visit Dr. Anissa’s website: www.deliveringwowu.com Visit her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/deliveringwow/ To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

During this episode, Ben and Kiera discuss an much needed office manager resource. Kiera discusses a new program she's launched that is designed to help office managers and many others working the front office on how to navigate all aspects of business. Team members can also gain access to insurance training through Kiera's new online tools. Check out her website: www.dentalmastersnow.com. To contact Kiera email her at: kierasdentalconsulting@gmail.com To contact our hosts please email: help@veritasdentalresources.com

There are many misconceptions about the do's and don'ts during the credentialing process when you are purchasing a practice or joining a new practice as an associate or owner. The truth is, credentialing takes time and no matter what dental insurance people tell you, always prepare for the worst. Some PPO's take a full year to get credentialed. Most are between 60 to 120 days. But be prepared for insurance plans to lose your paperwork, request the same items over and over again; and even give you the wrong effective dates. It would be so great to not deal with the crap that comes with credentialing and both Ben and Jordan give some advice on how to best deal with and prepare for credentialing issues. To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

Dr. Eskew founded DPC Frontier in Feb 2015. He joined ProactiveMD in Feb 2016 and is the company's VP of Clinical Development and General Counsel. He completed his family medicine residency at the Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center in Lititz, Pennsylvania in June 2015 and was honored with the American Osteopathic Foundation's Outstanding Resident of the Year Award in Family Medicine. He has been researching direct primary care (DPC) models for many years, including an intensive experience as a Visiting Scholar at the Robert Graham Center where his work was later published in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. He has also been published in the West Virginia Medical Journal, the Journal of Legal Medicine, Family Practice Management, and the Journal of American Physicians & Surgeons. Dr. Eskew has advised state and federal legislators about DPC legislation, and volunteers his time as the general counsel of the Direct Primary Care Coalition where he also serves as a member of the steering committee. He graduated from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine in 2012, the West Virginia University College of Law in 2008, the University of Kentucky Gatton MBA Programin 2006, and West Virginia Wesleyan Collegewith accounting and chemistry majors in 2005. He has been a member of the Kentucky Bar since 2011, obtained a limited certificate to practice with the South Carolina Bar in 2016, and intends to use his diverse training to not only grow Proactive MD, but to support other DPC practices in the medical, legal, and policy arenas. Dr. Eskew regularly speaks about direct primary care. He has spoken at events organized by the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American College of Legal Medicine, the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, the American Association of Physicians and Surgeons, the Docs 4 Patient Care Foundation, and the American Academy of Private Physicians. To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

​In this episode Jordon Comstock and Mark Costes talk about the value of time and how to analyze your time to work more efficiently as a dentist. Mark talks about his presentation from the Voices of Dentistry Conference. Practice owners are spread thin everyday and using Mark's techniques will help you manage your day and focus on high value tasks which is essential to success. Mark also announces his decision to create the Dental Success Network and why this is a win for dentists and vendors across the nation. To learn more about the Dental Success Network visit their website at: https://www.dentalsuccessnetwork.com/ This podcast is brought to you by the www.DentalPay.net. Save thousands on credit card processing fees using Dental Pay! To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com.

Over her 25 years of experience in the dental industry, Andrea has led practices from many positions: dental assistant, hygienist, office manager, Dentrix trainer, practice management consultant and speaker. She approaches her work with each practice uniquely to develop protocols and workflows to reduce stress and advance patient communication. In this current healthcare climate, it can be a challenge to navigate the murky waters of dental insurance and still achieve fulfillment and life balance. Andrea is passionate about helping dentists and their teams believe in what they are providing to the patient family and realize contentment and purpose. Her gift of connection and empathy is a key element in engaging with audience members, as well as developing leadership one on one with her clients. Visit Andrea's website: www.onpoint.consulting Email Andrea: andrea@onpoint.consulting To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com

Gary educates us on how he went from 34 PPO contracts to fully Fee For Service utilizing external marketing strategies, membership programs and improving the patient experience. Gary's methods in breaking free from the shackles of insurance is from his personal experiencing owning and operating a dental practice in the Phoenix Arizona market. Gary is one of the most recognized dental practice management consultants in dentistry today. His knowledge of the Business of Dentistry has helped thousands of Dentists develop a Thriving practice in any economy. With Gary as your coach you can develop your ideal practice that provides you with the economic success that you deserve. Imagine the joy of practicing dentistry because you want to, not because you have to! http://www.takacslearningcenter.com/ Gary@takacslearningcenter.com On his website you can subscribe to his podcast. Gary's podcast is rated #1 in dentistry on itunes and other media outlets. He is truly the Podfather of dental podcasts! To contact our hosts please email help@veritasdentalresources.com